YouTube, MySpace blasted on copyright issue
Universal Music tightens legal reins, plans lawsuit against YouTube
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14841809/

Updated: 8:18 p.m. ET Sept 14, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, contends the wildly popular Web sites YouTube and MySpace are violating copyright laws by allowing users to post music videos and other content involving Universal artists.

"We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars," Universal Music CEO Doug Morris told investors Wednesday at a conference in Pasadena. "How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly."

Universal's talks with YouTube Inc. have deteriorated and the recording giant is set to file a copyright infringement lawsuit against the video-sharing company if no agreement is reached by the end of the month, according to a person familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the negotiations.


Universal's talks with News Corp.'s MySpace have been progressing, the person said.

A call to YouTube seeking comment was not immediately returned. MySpace declined to comment.

The prospect of Universal Music or other record labels suing MySpace or YouTube represents a departure from the way the recording industry has interacted with the sites thus far.

In less than three years, MySpace has emerged as a choice destination for young people and a hub for bands to promote music. Record labels big and small have created Web pages on the social networking site for their bands, typically allowing visitors to listen to the artists' music for free.

Since launching last year, YouTube has grown into one of the most popular video portals on the Web, thriving off user-generated videos that sometimes include people lip-synching to copyright songs or incorporating footage from movies or music videos.

The company has said it promptly complies with notices to remove copyright-infringing material uploaded by users.

But commercial music videos posted with the blessing of the record labels can also be found on the site. YouTube recently added branded channels and videos that enable companies to advertise on the site, a service Warner Bros. Records used to promote Paris Hilton's debut album.

Capitol Records, meanwhile, has released videos on YouTube by The Vines, Cherish and OK Go.

Universal, however, has made it a priority to get compensation for content that was once seen as purely promotional. Last year, the company began charging Web portals such as Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL for playing its artists' music videos online or over video-on-demand services.


I think Universal is dumb for this move. These companies need to get with the times and learned to use these entities

Not at all surprised. But it still sucks!

Those sons of bytches (sorry for the foul languages, I had to say it).

I'm not surprise not one damn bit. YouTube is being setup.

How in the hell is Universial going to demand compensation from YouTube if the website isn't charging people that are load up the videos to begin with?

Universial is trying to punk YouTube out of their own creation. They can't stand the fact that (for most of us) THIS is the last place to go watch the classic videos that we grew up with. YouTube is the only place to go find the funk, freestyle, new wave, electronic dance in general, and everything else that MTV/BET refuse to show.

Universial also can't stand the fact that YouTube & MySpace are great options for independent artists to be sucess WITHOUT any backing from the major labels like Universial themselves.

BOTTONLINE: Universial is the beast power of the music industry. And they will stop at nothing to buy out every independent record label & independent website that is out there.

THIS is a conspircy fact that these big businesses (like Universial) are trying to take away our freedom. And if our government side with them, we're screw!!!
[Edited 9/15/06 13:40pm]

Universal has lost their own created war already long ago .
Stubborn fools who try to pull the strings from their desert island .
Unstoppable new seeds will grow again .
Also other services like Skype are a big threat to phone-companies .
It's a digital era and many new generations of smart talents from silicon valley will come with new ways to explore music , which foolish conservative companies hopelessly try to stop .
One tip for companies like YouTube , MySpace , Skype or whatever new upcoming smart-idea-concept-inventive company ... invest in the best lawyers available .
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[Edited 9/15/06 13:52pm]

Like, my two favorite sites


after the org, of course

Universal is really pulling things on YouTube left and right too.When I wanted to watcht he video for Scandolous I got a message saying that Universal ordered it to be removed from the site...

Record Labels are proving again that they are horribly stupid.



They should've bought Napster et al outright as soon as they burst on the scene instead of fighting them in court. The same may be said of Myspace and Youtube in the near future.


Technology always wins.

Well its all about money, but the thing is, YouTube and Myspace arent getting any money, but im sure the labels are looking inot any kind of advertising revenue that they make. My feeling is that Universal is worried about the fact that things like YouTube are taking away from Video channels, because people arent really tuning into Mtv or Vh1 to see videos, they are watching Flav get some booty. But this is there own fault, either way you look at it the labels feel they are owed something, Im sure they will blame lost sales on things like youtube and Myspace, and just recently i saw Jessica Simpson and she was promoting both of these things to go find music and videos, so this is all about the labels and the "suits" wanting money. Im sure they will try to get a deal with YouTube to maybe have their own channel, maybe even buy a portion of them, who knows, but i do know that Universal which is considered the biggest label, lost big time money this year, mainly because of all the excess people they employ, but the artists will suffer, Universal is said to not be renewing about 100 artists contracts, unless they sold over 200,000. I would just love to see the whole thing just crash, no labels, no charts, no soundscan, nothing.

I think if everyone feels this way about the labels, they should boycott them, for one whole week stay out of stores, dont buy online, dont get a new release, see what they do. and to make sure it hurts, do it during a major release week, usually in November right before holiday shopping starts.
[Edited 9/15/06 19:33pm]

lastdecember said:

To me this suggests that this is all about controlling content. People don't go on Myspace and YouTube to download music; all of it is streamed from one place. In the case of YouTube, people can share videos, but they don't actually download them (unless you're a hacker who has some cracks or plug-ins). In a sense, it's like radio or the early days of television, but the big record companies want to screw it up by charging money every time something is played on Myspace or YouTube. The other sinister aspect of this is that people will post their own video creations to popular songs on Mypsace and YouTube, but the record companies are looking to make people pay to put their own homemade videos on these sites, and yet at the same time, they would be making huge profits from other people's work. I could understand why they would do this if they owned Myspace or YouTube and had to pay for the hosting and bandwidth charges, but they don't own those sites and they are still being greedy!

lastdecember said:

I have some better ideas than THAT:

1. We should sent ALL of the remaining 4 major record labels the ultimate F.U. statement by stop buying albums.....until further notice (even if it means going on buyers' holdout until 2010, so be it!).

2. Beside supporting YouTube & MySpace (while those sites are still here for the public), we need to start supporting independent artists over at acidplanet.com, cdbaby.com, etc. It also a good idea to support artists that are pro-P2P (bands like Heart are a perfect example).

3. Also we need to learn how to make some music ourselves. With all of the computer music technology available to us (Pro-Tools, Reason, FL Studio, Audition/Cool Edit, Orion, Sonar, Cubase, Logic, Acid Pro, etc.), we have the option to form our own music industry outside of the RIAA.
[Edited 9/15/06 20:30pm]

Rhondab said:

I knew that was going to happen eventually, and sooner rather than later. I had a colleague that did a profile on the youtube kids for a mens magazine this year w the theme: 'the 25 young entities quietly shaping our world', and as soon as I read it I just thought "it's all over, now" the head honchos in the business world are going to see this, realize what they're dealing with, and will come take away all our little fun WAAAAAH

Oh no!